Within the Nineties, Kay Hanley discovered fame because the bandleader of Boston alt-rock outfit Letters to Cleo. The band’s 1993 single “Right here & Now” helped them domesticate a nationwide fanbase that led them to a collection of placements in motion pictures and TV all through the last decade. But it surely was an look within the film — and on the soundtrack — for 10 Issues I Hate About You that helped the band go mainstream. Simply two years later, Hanley would develop into the voice of Josie McCoy within the now-cult-classic movie Josie and the Pussycats, serving to solidify songs like “Spin Round” and “3 Small Phrases” as popular culture phenomena.
However throughout her tenure in Letters to Cleo, Hanley additionally launched a solo report — Cherry Marmalade — again in 2002. The catchy pop album by no means fairly hit the mainstream however discovered a following through the years. It additionally allowed Hanley to search out peace and stray from the darkness shrouded within the sunny-tinged Cleo songs. For the album’s twentieth anniversary, Hanley had a possibility to revisit the report and launch a brand new version. “At the moment, I by no means actually appreciated the sound of my voice, so I might by no means listened to the report till I went to remaster it for vinyl [for the anniversary edition],” she explains over the cellphone from Los Angeles.
Learn extra: This star-studded pro-choice album stays unreleased, however is extra related than ever
In an interview with AP, Hanley revisits the making of Cherry Marmalade, the Josie and the Pussycats vault songs that exist and what’s subsequent for Cleo.
Inform me the origin story of Cherry Marmalade.
It is from a e-book that I used to learn to [my daughter] Zoe Mabel when she was a child by this demented illustrator turned youngsters’s e-book author, Calef Brown. There is a line from one of many poems within the e-book known as “Introducing Ed,” and “Cherry Marmalade” is without doubt one of the strains from the poem on this e-book. It was all the time simply so resonant to me. I hadn’t actually deliberate on writing a solo report. Michael Eisenstein, my husband on the time, and now ex-husband, had simply completed the tour for Letters to Cleo, and issues had felt just a little darkish on the finish of that final tour, for a wide range of causes. He was leaving for a few months, and I used to be partying my ass off, and I used to be like, “Oh, my God, my husband’s going to be gone. I am simply going to go loopy.” And actually 48 hours after he left, I came upon I used to be pregnant. The whole lot simply shifted. I stop doing all of the ingesting and the medicine, and I went to fulfill him in Maui 4 weeks later. He’d been browsing and taking actually excellent care of himself, and I had been taking actually excellent care of myself, and strolling and consuming, ingesting juices and consuming greens. We met as new folks with out ever anticipating to.
What was the primary tune you wrote for the album?
At that time, I began writing “Galapagos,” which was a reasonably darkish tune in regards to the final Letters to Cleo tour, which felt like the top of Cleo for that time frame. I wrote “Galapagos” and a few different songs and introduced them to Mike Denneen from Q Division Studios, who had made all of the Cleo data. And he was like, “All proper, we will make a report.” I simply saved writing, and we made a report collectively at Q Division. One of many issues that had been most outstanding in regards to the expertise of constructing that report was that I felt such a deep sense of peace and hopefulness that I had by no means actually felt in my life earlier than. I used to be pregnant with Zoe, and there was simply this entire new sense of, “Whoa, the long run.” I felt fearless in a approach that I hadn’t, and I used to be capable of write. Normally, the components with Cleo is that I might be actually in a darkish place, and I might write all these very happy-sounding songs as a result of that was how I coped — very happy-sounding songs with darkish lyrics — and with Cherry Marmalade, I used to be capable of actually face a number of that darkness and never be afraid of it.
[Kay Hanley with Letters to Cleo]
Did you care about how the report could be acquired at the moment?
I did not often because I might by no means made a solo report. And even in Cleo, I by no means had a way of methods to market myself. I made a report and put it out. By the point I went on tour, I used to be pregnant with [my son] Henry, so I used to be touring pregnant, once more. By then, I used to be identical to, “Fuck all, y’all. I do not want you and your reward and your approval.” I did not want it the way in which I craved it once I was youthful. So I did not even look. However folks appear to love it now. It was one of many final data that Q Division to be recorded on the 2-inch tape that also was edited in Professional Instruments.
Trying again, do you may have any regrets about the way you approached the making of this report?
After I went into this course of, I keep in mind simply considering, “Oh, the vocals are too loud. It sounds this, it appears like that.” However I had by no means actually listened to the report. So once I listened this time round, I do not assume I’d’ve accomplished something otherwise aside from loving it extra, then giving it extra love and a spotlight myself. I feel possibly the factor I remorse essentially the most is the way it was acquired by me, which is why it is so fantastic to have the ability to come again all these years later and do it this manner.
At this level in your life, which tune from the report do you maintain closest to your coronary heart?
“Trans-Neptunian Object #1,” the nearer, I like that. Particularly as a result of I wrote it about toddler Zoe, and I’ve by no means actually performed that a lot dwell. It by no means made it into the dwell set, so I am actually trying ahead to taking part in that one. “Galapagos,” all the time. I by no means get by that one with out crying. I’d say these are my two favorites right this moment.
You had been the voice of Josie from the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack. Are there any unreleased songs from the film that you simply’d ever convey out of the woodwork?
I imply, I’ve no management over it, however Dave Gibbs from the Gigolo Aunts, who introduced me into the venture, wrote a bunch of songs. There was a tune known as “Merry Go Round” that I recorded, and there have been in all probability a few others from the early periods. However they weren’t my songs, so they only did not make it to the report.
Oh, my God. We may get a Josie and the Pussycats EP?
Yeah, completely.
Unimaginable. The 10 Issues I Hate About You soundtrack basically is so iconic, as is your half in that. How has that impacted your total profession?
Oh, my God. I do not know. All I can inform you is that on the time, folks appreciated the film, and the identical factor with Josie. I undoubtedly felt the eye from these initiatives, however I didn’t really feel love and adoration till the final 5 or 10 years. So, I’ve by no means perceived it as folks being influenced by me as a lot as they’re influenced by what these initiatives needed to say about women and girls. They had been approach, approach forward of their time. I am not in the least shocked that individuals lastly got here round and embrace these messages about women and girls and the area that we occupy on this world. So fucking proud to be part of that.
Who do you dream of collaborating with at this level in your profession?
Effectively, that will imply that I’ve to think about getting again into life as an artist. Proper now, my life as an artist is so part-time. I have been collaborating my entire life. My music life may be very collaborative. That is all I do, [so] there’s this unimaginable freedom in retreating into solitude to jot down, which I’ve by no means accomplished in my life till now. So my favourite collaborator proper now, essentially the most difficult collaborator I’ve proper now, is myself.
You’ve got spent a number of your profession writing music for TV and movie. Are there any reveals you are focused on making a soundtrack for?
Oh, my goodness. If I may write the theme tune for Connor Roy’s presidential marketing campaign within the subsequent season of Succession, that will be wonderful. I’d like to do all these actually goofy rap songs for Succession. Kendall’s all the time doing these dumb-ass raps. I’d love to jot down the lyrics for these the place he is making up his personal lyrics to Snoop Dogg songs.
Which artists had been you most impressed by once you had been making Cherry Marmalade?
I used to be simply retreating into my report assortment. I used to be listening to a number of Massive Star and the Muffs. Positively Wilco. One of many songs was immediately impressed by a movie known as Little Voice. I went to the theater and noticed it on my own. I cried by the entire thing, simply excited about making the connection between going to this film and this stunning character discovering herself and what was taking place to me in my life. [So] I wrote a tune known as “Completely satisfied to Be Right here.”
What’s subsequent for you?
Effectively, I created a present with my writing companions known as Kindergarten: The Musical, which acquired greenlit, however we bought it to Disney Junior, acquired greenlit within the spring, so we’re in full-on manufacturing on that. I’ve by no means been an EP on a tv present earlier than, so this can be a new factor for me. Now we have began writing a Cleo report, and I’ve began writing a brand new solo report. I might love for that to be subsequent 12 months, so let’s simply say subsequent 12 months.
